The Oakland Raiders have been one of the proudest and most popular teams in the NFL, but recently have fallen on hard times. As they head into 2012, it will take a miracle for this team to compete for the playoffs and there is a better chance at grabbing the No. 1 overall 2012 draft pick.

On offense the Raiders are fueled by outstanding running back Darren McFadden. D-Mac is a stud and can put up unreal numbers if he is healthy; the problem is that rarely happens. In fact the Raiders are already forming a back-up plan as the latest rumors suggest they will sign trouble-maker Cedric Benson.

Veteran Carson Palmer gets his first full-season under center for the Oakland Raiders and although he is better than some of the quarterbacks they have had in the past, Palmer is not ready to lead this team to the Super Bowl. Palmer is old, turnover prone, and like D-Mac, injury prone. The offense will focus on D-Mac and burn a few folks with deep ball since they do have speed at wide receiver, but that recipe will not translate into a winning season. They will have to rely on defense and that is a disaster.

The defense is not much better and in fact they could even be worse than a year ago. Their defensive line was shredded a year ago and the off-season did not produce any attractive options for this team. The biggest pick up on the front line is Dave Tollefson and that will be enough to fix a defense that allowed an average of 136 yards per game on the ground. The secondary is not much better as they were 27th in the league a year ago in passing yards allowed. Tyvon Branch signing with the team will help, but it wonâ€™t be enough for the Raiders to be a threat in a revamped AFC West.[poll id=”2″]

The Raiders have always had a problem with discipline and last year they broke an NFL record with 163 penalties for almost 1400 yards. This area will have to be addressed and fixed if the Raiders have any shot of winning. That is unlikely to happen in one-year, but for the Raiders any improvement will be a step in the right direction.

The AFC West now includes Peyton Manning who will make the Denver Broncos the odds on favorite to win a division crown. San Diego is always a threat and even the Kansas City Chiefs look better than the Raiders heading into the start of the season.

The Raiders schedule is not easy and outside of games against Jacksonville, and Miami, this team will be lucky to have 3 wins. The Raiders had to get out from under several poor contracts, had no draft picks, and no spending money. The rebuilding project for the Silver and Black will take years and itâ€™s going to be ugly along the way.